Game projectile with handle and shiftable center of gravity



Dec. 29, 1964 R. w. MATYKO 3,163,421

GAME PROJECTILE WITH HANDLE AND SHIFTABLE CENTER OF GRAVITY Filed Oct. 10, 1963 I'll FIG.|

INVENTOR.

RUDOLPH W. MATYKO BY F|G.3 m M ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,163,421 GAME PRQEECTTLE WETH HANDLE AND SHIFTABLE CENTER OF GRAVITY Rudolph W. Matyko, 134 Fairview, Chagrin Falls, Ohio Filed et. 10, 1963, Ser. No. 315,177 13 Claims. (Cl. 273-465) This invention relates to toy aerial projectiles and more particularly to an improved bean bag construction.

Originally, bean bags were, as the name implies, bags filled with beans. The term evolved into the generic name for any similar structure having afiexible covering and filled with granular material such as metal shot. As used here, the term bean bag is intended to have their evolved generic meaning.

Numerous types of bean bags are known in the art, but none of these is equipped with a handle portion for throwing and catching. The provision of a handle permits a bag to be projected in a manner which causes it to move through the air in a ballistic trajectory with different ancillary movements, depending upon the direction of the applied projecting force. Further, known bean bags do not include structure which causes them to tend to assume a predetermined position when they land.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a novel and improved bean bag. a i

it is another object of this invention to provide a toy bean bag constructed in a manner which permits it to be thrown in a ballistic trajectory with difierent ancillary movements imparted to the toy. v

it is another object of this invention to provide an elongated toy bean bag having a handle on at least one end and means within the projectile for causing the projectile to move along a ballistic trajectory and assume a predetermined position when the toy lands.

It is another object of this invention to provide a flexible toy bean bag equipped with a soft graspable handle for throwing and catching.

it is still a further object of this invention to provide a toy bean bag having a flexible container including a depending elongated portion filled with resilient material and weight means within the container for causing the container to tend to orient the elongated portions in a particular way when the toy is thrown.

Briefly, in accordance with aspects of this invention, 1

container, a handle portion on at least one end and a provide a toy aerial projectile with an elongated flexible weighted flexible portion. The handle may be employed manually to throw the toy and the force applied to the handle may have a vectorcomponent divergent from the center or gravity of the weighted portion which causes the handle to move through an ancillary circular path relative to the trajectory of thebag. In one illustrativeem bo-liment, the elongated container may have the weighted portion inone end of thecontainer and the handle on the other end. Preferably, the weighted portion is cylindrical and the handle portion has a smaller cross section than the cross section of the Weighted portion. in another illus trative embodiment, the toy is elongated with the weighted portion intermediate the end portions andwith the end portions having reduced cross sections relative to the weighted portion thereby defining handles, which handles are filled with resilient material. Other objects and a fuller understanding or" the invention may be had by referring to the following description "ice and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which: 7 i

FIGUREl is a view in section of one embodiment of this invention; and,

FIGURES 2 and 3 are views in section of other illus trative embodiments of this invention.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, there is depicted in section, one embodiment of my novel toy aerial projectile. The projectile is designated with the numeral 10 and includes three axially aligned sections 12, 14, and 16 having a flexible covering shown generally at 18. The covering 18 is of plastic or other suitable material, such as leather. The covering 18 has separate parts 13, 15, 17 in the sections 12, 14, 16 respectively. The covering also has end parts 241 21. The five 12, 14, 16, 20', 21, are sewed together to complete the covering. The parts permit simple assembly of the toy and an attractive appearancesince the parts may be made of different colors of materials. 7

The section 12 is the handle section and is preferably cylindrical and is filled with resilient material, such as sponge rubber 1% so that the handle may be manually caught without injury to the catcher. The section 14 is a buffer section and is rusto-conical with its smaller diameter end joined to handle section 12. The larger diameter end of the bufier section 14 is joined to the end of the thick or body section 16. Section 14 may be filled 18 to freely flex.

Because the weight material 23 is confined in section 16 by the padding 27, the handle section 12 will tend to rotate about the weighted section 16 in anancillary movement when the toy is manually projected-into the air. The particular paths of rotation will be tangent to the vector component of the applied force which does not pass through the center of gravity of the weighted section. Also, because the weight is in one end of the toy, the handle will be held in a substantially vertical position when the toy lands. 1 The covering 17 of the body section 7.6 is generally tubular-shaped when the projectile is resting on a surface and the handle is projecting vertically.

Numerous games can be improvised around this novel Y toy. For example, a game of catch can be played by one or more players who project the toy into the air and attempt to catch the toy by the handle.

When the covering 18 is made from color combinations which permit ready identification of individual ones of a group of these toys or individual sets of the group, a 1

number of other games are possible. .Players may throw these toys ata horizontally disposed bulls-eye like target scoring according to the nearness to the center of the target. The players may play a game where the object tion 16 by means of a wall such as wall 26. If this construction is. employed, the cover-ing material-18 should be sufliciently rigid to support the handle 12.

FIGURE 2 shows, in section, another embodiment 30 having a plastic covering 31, handle sections 32 and 34, a weight section 36 intermediate handles 32 and 34 and padding sections 38 and 40. Weight section 35 contains suitable weight material, such as spherical shot 37 or ovalshaped beans or other smooth surfaced members. The weights may be retained inspaced position relative to handles 32 and 34 by means of suitable padding 42 placed in sections 38and 40. The covering 31 has a'construction similar to thecovering material 18 in that it has different parts 33, 35, 37, 39, 41 in the sections 32, 34, 36, 38, 40. The covering 31 also has end parts 43, '44. These parts may be of diiferent colorsor have different indicia thereon.

With this embodiment, different games'may be played as compared with the embodiment of FIGURE 1. For example, a game of catc may be played with one or more players on a team. 1 One team may berequired to catch the toy only on one end, such as end 32 while the other team may be required to catch the toyonly. by-the other handle; i.e., handle 34. Alternatively, each team may be required to catch the toy on alternate ends on successive catches. To facilitate playing this type of game the handle parts 32, 34 should be of different colors.

The embodiment of FIGURE 3 is quite similar to that of FIGURE 1 except that is is designed to land with the axis of the handle at an oblique angle rather than vertical. Because of the similarity in construction of theembodiments in FIGURES 1 and 3, the latter is designated by the same numerals with a prime added. Otherthan differences in proportions, the only differences are that covering 17' in the body section 16. is truncatedand the base end part 21' is substantally conical.

While the invention-has been described in its preferred form with a certain degreeof particularity, it isunderstood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed. 3

What is claimed is:

1. A toy projectile comprising:

(a) wall sections defining a container of generally tubular shape; b) a plurality of relatively movable weights being loosely disposed within the container and partly filling the container, said weights being freely-movable within the container so that the center of gravity of said projectile shifts forwardly when it is thrown;

(c) a rod-like handle secured to said container, said handle and said container normallylying in a straight line, said handle havingan outer surface sized and shaped to be readily grasped-for manipulating and throwing the container with the weightsmovably disposed inside;

(d) the container being substantially larger than handle so as to extend beyond the surfaces of handle; and,

(e)at least outer portions of the wall sections being flexible and flexing readily to the forces of the Weights movable within the container such that the flexible portions assume contours'dictated by a combination of the outwardly directed forces 'of the movable weights engaging the inside surfaces'of the .wall sec trons and inwardly directed forces of any'medium engaging the outside surfaces of the wall sections:

2. The device of claim 1 including:

(1'') spacing means interposed between said handleand said wall sections to maintain the movable weights spaced from the handle when in their closest positions to the handle,

the the 3. The device of claim 2 wherein said spacing means comprises resilient padding-material which provides a buffer between the handle and the movable weights.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein said container wall sections comprise a flexible bag.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein said handle comprises an elongated resilient core and a flexible covering around the core, and the flexible covering is connected to the flexible bag.

6. The device of claim 1 including a second handle connected to said container directly opposite said first handle so that the movable weights are interposed between said handles.

7. The device of claim 6 wherein the handles have different outside surface appearances so that one handle is readily visibly distinguishable from the other.

8. The device of claim 6 including padding material pieces interposed between said handles andsaidcontainer so as to act as buffers between said weights and said handles.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein the wall sections of the tubularly-shaped container comprise a truncated cone section and a conical section, said truncated cone vsection having its large end connected to the handle and its small end connected to the base of the'conical section.

10. The device of claim 9 wherein padding is interposed between the handle and the container wall sections and the padding is contained by a flexible covering which resembles a truncated cone, the small end of the truncated cone covering is connected to said handle and the large end is connected to the large end of the truncated cone section of the container.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the container. is substantially conically shaped and is coaxial with the handle, and the substantially conic'ally shaped container has its base end connected to the handle with its other end pointing away from the handle.

12. A toy projectile comprising:

(a) wall sections defining a container of a generally tubular shape;

(b) a plurality of relatively movable weights being loosely disposed within the container and partly filling the container, said weights being freely movable within the container, so that the center of gravity of the projectile shifts when thrown;

(c) a plurality of elongated handles secured to the container, said handles being disposed onopposite sides of'the container so that the movable weights are interposed between thehandles, said handles having outer surfaces sized and shaped to'be readily. grasped for manipulating and throwing the container with the weights inside; i

(a') the container being substantially larger than the handles so as to extend beyond the. surfaces of the handles; and, p

(e) at least "portions of the wall sections being flexible between the handles and flexing readily to the forces of the weightsmovable'withinthe container, and the handles being movable relative to each other by reason of flexing in said wall sections.

13. A toy projectile comprising:

(a) flexible walls defining a weight-containing chamber;

(b) movable weight means only partially filling said chamber, said weight means being movable in said chamber sothat the center of gravity of said projec-.

(References on following page) 5 s 1 References Cited by the Examiner 2,928,677 3/60 McAdam 273106 X 2,987,317 6/61 Acevedo 27384 X UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,111,317 11/63 Ci-tuk 273-106 X 4/01 Gedney 273-106 8/08 Gannon 273-84 5 FOREIGN PATENTS 9/29 Gagnon. 347,948 1/22 Germany. 10/34 Kohn.

1/ 35 Schulz 27 3-84 References Cited by the Applicant gig schrase at I 1INITED STATES PATENTS 6/40 Br e dc 273 84 X 10 1,593,453 7/26 12 45 Hutchison 73 4 2,525,228 10/50 Luceroh fi Mald0nald0. 4/54 Schultz 27384 DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner. 

1. A TOY PROJECTILE COMPRISING: (A) WALL SECTIONS DEFINING A CONTAINER OF GERNERALLY TUBULAR SHAPE; (B) A PLURALITY OF RELATIVELY MOVABLE WEIGHTS BEING LOOSELY DISPOSED WITHIN THE CONTAINER AND PARTLY FILLING THE CONTAINER, SAID WEIGHTS BEING FREELY MOVABLE WITHIN THE CONTAINER SO THAT THE CENTER OF GRAVITY OF SAID PROJECTILE SHIFTS FORWARDLY WHEN IT IS THROWN; (C) A ROD-LIKE HANDLE SECURED TO SAID CONTAINER, SAID HANDLE AND SAID CONTAINER NORMALLY LYING IN A STRAIGHT LINE, SAID HANDLE HAVING AN OUTER SURFACE SIZED AND SHAPED TO BE READILY GRASPED FOR MANIPULATING AND THROWING THE CONTAINER WITH THE WEIGHTS MOVABLY DISPOSED INSIDE; (D) THE CONTAINER BEING SUBSTANTIALLY LARGER THAN THE HANDLE SO AS TO EXTEND BEYOND THE SURFACES OF THE HANDLE; AND, (E) AT LEAST OUTER PORTIONS OF THE WALL SECTIONS BEING FLEXIBLE AND FLEXING READILY TO THE FORCES OF THE WEIGHTS MOVABLE WITHIN THE CONTAINER SUCH THAT THE FLEXIBLE PORTIONS ASSUME CONTOURS DICTATED BY A COMBINATION OF THE OUTWARDLY DIRECTED FORCES OF THE MOVABLE WEIGHTS ENGAGING THE INSIDE SURFACES OF THE WALL SECTIONS AND INWARDLY DIRECTED FORCES OF ANY MEDIUM ENGAGING THE OUTSIDE SURFACES OF THE WALL SECTIONS. 